P on the Boards: The ASAP Mob's Young Beatmaking Visionary

There's no shortage of young hip-hop producers attempting to carve out a niche and get their beats into the hands of the next big rapper. But very few have the straightforward enthusiasm of the ASAP Mob's own P on the Boards.

At the ripe old age of 22, he says he's got the artistic maturity and skill of a seasoned vet, but expresses himself as though his fervor for his craft will never age.

"I don't really have a knack for sports and stuff, I was more into creating and thinking," says P, or Patricio Contreras as he's known outside of his ASAP affiliation. "I started drawing as my first creative output. That was really the first hobby I started expressing myself with."

Living back and forth between New York and Miami, P felt inclined to be creative somehow, but drawing and sketching weren't exactly the most respected outlets among himself and his peers during adolescence. From using the pen for pictures came using the pen for poetry, and soon after P began using rapping as a medium to express himself.

"I was like 'I could rap, it's just like being poetic. That shit comes easy' and I started rapping," he says. "I was doing talent shows, had the MySpace page popping, music page getting plays; it was booming."

Being an emcee wasn't enough. "I figured I couldn't really express myself artistically with just words, I felt like I needed more mediums," he says. "So I just started making beats and it was like I could express how I feel or an emotion or how I want to make people feel and they could hear it."

Since his introduction to producing and beatmaking as a means of expression, P has found the kind of success most young producers can only dream of even partially obtaining. As a part of the wildly successful and globally recognized ASAP Mob, P has been able to work alongside the likes of Harlem superstars and personal friends ASAP Rocky and ASAP Ferg, and become a part of the New York based ASAP movement.